


Wins and Losses

by Kirathaune



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-03 22:53:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10260680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirathaune/pseuds/Kirathaune
Summary: At Hontou the Sage claims victory, but so much is lost.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2015 Weiss vs Saiyuki Battle on LJ. Challenge #4, Prompt: Death

So much blood.

So little of it his own.

The Seiten Taisei stood high on a rocky ledge and surveyed the scattered, smoking ruins of Hontou Castle. The great Ox-Demon King, Gyu-maoh, newly restored to his true form, was now reduced to a hulking mass of bloodied flesh and broken bones.

The air around the Sage hummed with the otherworldly powers that had combined to take down the giant beast, and when he sniffed the air he tasted a sharp, metallic tang in his mouth. He sensed the lingering energies of the sutras wielded by Konzen and the scarred priestess, and he could still feel the remnants of the bright, blinding power that the child-god had unleashed on the demon king and his horde of youkai.

_Konzen._

He felt a queer, oddly familiar tightness in his chest as he clambered down the ledge. The Sage ignored the rocks and debris that tumbled down alongside him, suddenly consumed with the need to find his companions. 

He found Kenren and Tenpou first, although it took him awhile to recognize them in their youkai forms. They were together, as always; the tightness in his chest increased when his gaze dropped to their outstretched, lifeless hands, hands that had managed to touch and entwine before their souls had left this world.

“Ten-chan,” he said, haltingly, for his voice in this form was rusty with a half-millennium of disuse. “Ken-nii-chan.” 

He passed by others who had fallen—some dead, some close to it; first the priestess and her companion, and then a little further on, the demon king’s son and daughter—both of whom had joined them in the fight against their father. Seiten Taisei’s lip lifted in a snarl when he came upon the mangled body of the dark priest, the raven who had once tried to kill his other self.

Maybe… maybe Konzen was still—

But his hope faded as quickly as it had risen, for just over the crest of the hill the Sage noticed a still form, clothed in torn, filthy silk robes. Two tattered scriptures fluttered in the wind.

“Konzen.” Seiten Taisei dropped to his knees, and hot tears spilled down his cheeks as he gently stroked golden-blond strands of hair. He gathered the body in his arms.

They had left him alone.

Again.

The Sage threw back his head and howled.

A shimmering light appeared to his left, and moments later the Merciful Goddess knelt next to him.

“Well done,” she said. “Both you and Nataku did a fine job taking down the Demon King, and in doing so you allowed the others to destroy the source of the Minus Wave. You have earned the right to return to Heaven. Ah, my poor nephew.” She bent down and tenderly brushed a lock of hair away from the dead monk’s temple.

The Sage batted her hand away with a snarl. “W-why?” he asked, forcing the word through a grief-tightened throat.

The Goddess sighed. “The answer to ‘why’ is always ‘because’, little one. They knew this was their likely end, but they chose to do it anyway. Such stubborn souls—they were just invited to return to Heaven as well, and all three of them refused. They chose to continue on the Great Wheel, and be reincarnated once again in the Lower World.”

Seiten Taisei spoke again. “I want… to be with them. Ten-chan, Ken-nii-chan, and… Konzen.”

She brushed tears from his cheek. “They are no longer called by those names, darling.” She touched his forehead; his ears and claws shortened, and the sharpness of his youkai senses diminished. 

Memories flooded through him, reminding him of different names, the names that were the only ones Goku had ever known. “H-Hakkai… Gojyo…” He hugged the body in his arms tighter. “Sanzo.” The man before him had been so many things to him in two short lives; guardian, father, savior, friend, and, toward the end of this life, lover.

“They left those names behind, too, when they left their bodies. But their souls remain the same.”

“I want to be with them,” he pleaded. “Please.”

She cocked her head and regarded him. “You would traverse the Wheel with them? You would give up your immortality to do so?”

He nodded.

“Say it,” she commanded. “Such things must be spoken.”

“Yes,” he said, without a moment’s hesitation. “I give it up.”

“You will not always find them, nor they you. There will be some lifetimes you spend alone.”

He swallowed heavily. “But,” he insisted,” there will be many lifetimes with them.” 

With _him_.

No matter what name he bore.

The Goddess smiled at him. “Very well. I had a feeling that this would be your choice, because you are stubborn, too.” She leaned forward and whispered, “Take care of them for me.” 

She kissed him on the forehead.

Seiten Taisei Son Goku watched his lifeless body collapse to the ground next to Sanzo. He looked at the Merciful Goddess, who was now standing next to him.

“Go on, kiddo,” she said, pointing to a bright light on the horizon. “Find them. Live.”

Goku laughed and followed the light.


End file.
